Govt allots P50M budget to mining review teams

SOURCED FROM CONTINGENCY FUND

THE Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is allocating P50 million to fund the teams that will review the closure and suspended orders issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

The Mining Industry Coordinating Council (MICC), co-chaired by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez, has created a technical working group (TWG) to supervise teams ( TRTs) after the DENR ordered 23 mining operations The DENR also canceled 75 mining contracts in various phases of development.

Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno has informed Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd that the money will come from the government’s contingency fund, the Department of Finance (DoF) said in a statement over the weekend.

As a result of this development, Dominguez the MICC will ask for a permanent allocation under national budget beginning with the proposed General Appropriations Act of 2018. “This MICC has never been funded. So, I think, for the 2018 budget we will propose that we will do that,” Dominguez was quoted as saying in a press briefing after the council’s meeting on Friday. “It’s been done (with other similar councils) so we can do it,” he added.

It is only proper that the MICC be given a permanent allocation under the national budget, given its task mandated by Executive

Order 79 is to review all 311 mining contracts in the country once every two years, Dominguez noted.

The MICC will start the process of selecting the members of the review teams today, Monday, after the council earlier approved the guidelines on conducting an “objective, of mining operations nationwide, initially covering those ordered closed or suspended by the DENR.

Dominguez said the review will be done “in accordance with existing guidelines and parameters set forth in the specific mining contracts concerned and other pertinent laws rules and regulations.”

The members of the TRT “shall be - experienced in mining operations and who shall be independent and

Each team will have a geologist, mining engineer or metallurgi- cal engineer, lawyer, community relations officer, environmental management officer, economic representatives of local government units hosting mining operations, as well as representatives from the DoF, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Trade and Industry, National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Social Welfare and Development and other concerned government agencies.

“An ad hoc review management - ganized to manage and undertake the review, respectively,” Dominguez said.

“The RMU shall manage the review through the provision of - tive and financial services, hire individual experts and consolidate documents and reports for submission to the Council,” he added.

The TRTs were given three - ing on the technical, legal, social, environmental and economic aspects of mining operations.